More hires does not equal more leverage
When executives are asked “what percentage of your work week is spent in your highest-value activities?”, most answer “somewhere between 10–40%”. That speaks to a lot of value being lost to a lack of leverage. In most cases, the vast majority of executives’ time is going toward coordination, operational decisions, administrative follow-ups and reactive problem solving. This isn’t just anecdotal. In our Office of the CEO research across 200 organizations, many CEOs reported spending 60% or more of their time on operations and administration rather than strategy, growth and external leadership. The problem isn’t effort…
When executives are asked “what percentage of your work week is spent in your highest-value activities?”,
most answer “somewhere between 10–40%”.
That speaks to a lot of value being lost to a lack of leverage.
In most cases, the vast majority of executives’ time is going toward coordination, operational decisions, administrative follow-ups and reactive problem solving.
This isn’t just anecdotal.
In our Office of the CEO research across 200 organizations, many CEOs reported spending 60% or more of their time on operations and administration rather than strategy, growth and external leadership.
The problem isn’t effort or intention.
It’s structure.
High-performing leaders don’t scale by working harder, they scale by
building intentional infrastructure that leads to real leverage.
What do we mean by leverage
Leverage isn’t just delegation, and it’s not just hiring.
It’s the system around the leader that allows their time, energy, attention, and cognitive capacity to multiply.
We think of this as Executive Infrastructure.
On the personnel side, that might include roles like a PA, EA, Head of Operations, Chief of Staff, or COO.
On the infrastructure side, it includes things like operational flow management, AI and automation, decision-making rhythms, and performance management systems.
Through intentional design, this Executive Infrastructure, becomes a true force multiplier.
Where most Visionaries miss
Most Visionaries don’t design this system intentionally, they build it reactively.
They hire an assistant when they feel overwhelmed and delegate in pieces.
Later, they may bring on a Chief of Staff, but without clear ownership or authority, the role never fully lands.
They layer in tools, but the tools don’t connect or integrate because there’s no one implementing across the system.
So what they end up with isn’t leverage.
It’s fragmentation. And frustration.
The pieces exist, but they don’t operate as a cohesive system, which means they don’t lead to leverage.
The shift: from roles to architecture
Most CEOs hire roles, but the highest-performing CEOs design systems.
Leverage doesn’t come from adding more people.
It comes from how those roles and systems are intentionally designed to work together.
When that design is clear, leverage starts to compound.
Through our organizational design and strategy work, we architect 4 layers of leverage.
The four layers of leverage
Layer 1 — Execution Leverage
(Virtual Assistants, Personal Assistants, Administrative Assistants)
This layer creates time by removing lower-leverage tasks from the leader’s plate.
Layer 2 — Operational Leverage
(Executive Assistants)
This layer protects attention and energy by managing flow, coordination and follow-through across the day-to-day.
Layer 3 — Strategic Leverage
(Chief Integrator: Chief of Staff or COO)
This layer multiplies impact by owning execution and translating vision into outcomes across the org.
Layer 4 — Systems Leverage
(Automations + AI)
This layer scales the entire structure by embedding repeatable logic into the business.
These layers aren’t independent.
They build on each other.
Execution leverage creates time.
Operational leverage protects attention.
Strategic leverage multiplies decision impact.
Systems leverage scales everything.
When all four are working together, something important shifts.
The leader is no longer the operational bottleneck.
They’re able to step into the visionary role they were actually meant to play.
The reality
Most leaders already have pieces of this in place, but very few have designed it intentionally,
which is why most leaders feel like they should have leverage…
but don’t actually experience it.
In most cases, one of three things is true:
- The right integrator role doesn’t exist yet
- The role exists but the structure around it is unclear OR
- The role exists but the person sitting in it needs to level up.
And what you do next depends on which best describes your particular reality.
This isn’t about hiring everything at once.
In fact, in some cases, it’s not about hiring at all.
It’s about designing the right architecture for where you are and evolving it as you scale.
That’s the work we do together.
We offer organizational design and org evolution strategy, recruiting and placement, and upskilling services
in order to meet you where you are get you where you need to be.
If you’re team is expanding but you still feel like everything depends on you, we will get you where you want to be.
— Valerie Trapunsky
Founder, The Yutori Method™
P.S. Here are some other ways to level up your Executive Support structure:
- Want to identify your biggest Leverage Gap? Take our 3 minute quiz here.
- Curious how your delegation skills stack up? Take our delegation assessment to see what percentile you land among other business owners and grab copy of my book, Delegation Nation.
- And if you’re looking for connection with others walking the same path, join our free Circle Community. Visionaries join here; integrators join here.